Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says putting an end to the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is of paramount priority.
Amir-Abdollahian made the remark in a meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in the capital Beirut on Friday during his second stop on a regional tour that has already taken him to Iraq.
He said the ongoing operation by the Palestinian resistance groups against Israel “was a move solely by Palestinians and a natural response to constant extremism of the Zionist regime.”
The top Iranian diplomat slammed the contradictory approach of the US and Europe in the face of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
Amir-Abdollahian said it is “unacceptable” that the US and Europe throw their weight behind the ongoing crimes of the Tel Aviv regime while confirming the extremist and provocative nature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime.
“Calling others in the region to exercise self-restraint on the one hand and providing full support for the usurping Israeli regime to continue its war crimes on the other is a contradictory behavior which violates the claim that they do not want to expand the scope of war and conflict.”
He said Iran has proposed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to hold an emergency session to discuss the Palestinian developments while it supports initiatives of Muslim states in this regard.
Israel started its onslaught on Saturday after resistance groups launched multi-pronged Operation al-Aqsa Storm, the largest military operation against the occupying regime in decades.
The Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people, is under years-long siege by the Israeli regime.
Elsewhere in the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian hailed Lebanon’s continuous support for resistance and said Iran supports efforts aim to improve security and political process in the Arab country.
He said Iran attaches high priority to the development of stability and security in Lebanon given the Arab state’s important position in the region.
For his part, the Lebanese Parliament speaker hailed Iran’s support and political initiatives to end Israel’s aggression against the Palestinian people.
Berri said Israel is brutally killing Palestinian civilians, including women and children, in Gaza and destroying infrastructures and public and medical places, urging an immediate end to the regime’s atrocities.
He emphasized that all Muslim countries are duty-bound to support Palestinians.
Resistance absolute right of Palestinians in the face of occupation: Amir-Abdollahian
The Iranian foreign minister also said on Friday that resistance is the absolute right of Palestinians in the face of Israeli occupation.
In a meeting in Beirut with a number of senior officials of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the Islamic Jihad movement, Amir-Abdollahian added that even some Western officials have confessed that the Operation Al-Aqsa Mosque proved that Palestine is alive.
He noted that the large-scale operation also exposed that certain countries’ move to normalize ties with the Israeli regime would not help settle the Palestinian issue.
The top Iranian diplomat emphasized that Tehran would continue its efforts to help end Israel’s war crimes against people in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian resistance officials said the ongoing military operation was a normal reaction to constant crimes of Israel, particularly the Netanyahu’s extremist cabinet, against the Palestinian people and the regime’s repeated desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
They said the Palestinian resistance groups are strongly standing against the Israeli regime’s acts of aggression and are highly motivated to proceed with the path of resistance.
